Joseph perkins



JOSEPH PERKINS, @El MA'SSACHUSEFIff-"S/ASSIGNOBTOPEHKENSW: UPV'IONJrTRUSSING YARDS lT0 VESSELS MASTS. i

Specification of Letters Patent No. 12,0847, dated December 12, 1854.

To all whom, t may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOSEPH PERKINS, of Salem, in the county of Essex andState of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement inTrussing Yards to Masts of Ships or other Navigable Vessels; and I dohereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in thefollowing specification and the accompanying drawings, letters, ligures,and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a top view of my improved truss'as applied to a mast and yard. Fig. 2, is a side view of the same. Fig.3, is a top view of the truss, in common use the same showing itsvapplication to a mast and yard.

The improvement as shown in the accompanying drawings consists inarrangin the turning bearing of the yard, (or that earing, which allowsthe yard to be cock billed,) and swung (either to the Windward orleeward) close to the yard; (instead of close against the mast, as ithas been in practice heretofore), in combination with extending therocker bolt back to and slipping it into the mast, ring, or a projectiontherefrom.

In Figs. l and 2 of the drawings, A denotes the mast, and B, the yard.C, is the iron strap or ring made to clasp around the mast and to have aprojector D, made to receive and support a rocker bolt, E. This rockerbolt turns transversely in the projection and extends to the ring andworks at its rear end in a bearing or box, N, aiiixed to the ring. Thesaid ring and its projection may have another ring, O, placed below itand made to encompass the mast and have one or more braces or arms P,extended from it to the front part of the projection, D, as seen in Fig.2. The front end of the rocker bolt is straddled by the bail, F, and abolt, G, passes down through both bail and bolt 'so as to allow of ahorizontal movement of the bail on the bolt. This bail is properly madeto receive and support the yard, B. During the horizontal movements ofthe yard it turns on the pin Gr. During its vertical movements therocker bolt turns in its bearings.

The old plan ofl arranging the`parts of thetruss is shown in Fig. 3. Inthis the rocker bolt is seen at d, close or very nearly up to the masta. 'This bolt passes verti cally through an arm c, which turnshorizontally on the rocker bolt and has the bail, e, so jointed at itsfront end as to enable it to turn vertically on it.

By my improvement the middle ofthe yard is always kept close to theplane of the masts,whatever may be the position of the yard, whereas bythe old plan, it is allowed to swing some two or three feet or moretherefrom. My improvement by thus preventing the yard from going sometwo or three feet orthereabouts to the leeward as it does by theordinary plan of trussing, saves much if not all the great amount oflabor, which in bracing round the yard, (when the sail is taken aback)is required in'order to overcome theextra strain of the sail caused bythe swinging of the yard to .the leeward. The sail will set better withmy truss. B keeping the middle of the yard close to t e plane of themasts, the fore'- sail 'or mainsail when furled in stormy weather atsea, is not likely to chafe against the stays.

With the truss as commonly made vand used, the middle of the yard goesso far to the leeward, when the yard is braced up, that it brin s theinner quarter hard up against the col ars of the sta s, such being veryliable to chafe the sai unless care is used by ddropping the sail downfront of the yar The arm of the old kind of trusses, when the yard isbracedv up sharp, stands almost at right angles, with the keel or planeof the masts and this carries something like two l cloths of the saillsome two to four feet to the leeward of the said plane. The wind actingon this extra canvass operates with so much power, that when the leebraces are all let go, it is necessary to apply an extra number of men,to the weather braces in order to get the middle of the yard up to theplane of the masts before it can be braced round.

The facility of operating a yard provided with my improvement, willenable a vessel to make a 'considerable gain in distance run in a giventime, say twenty-four hours.

I do not claim placing the center of the fore and aft movement ofvessels yards In testimony whereof I have hereto set nearer to the yardsthan to the masts, except my Signature this fourth day of April A.. D.10 When the so placing of this center 0f move- 1853.

ments is combined With the extension 'of the 5 rocker bolt or spindlethrough the pro- JOSEH'PERKINS' jector or gallows brace D, into a fixedbear- Witnesses: ing upon the mast, in the manner and for JAS. CLOUTMAN,

the purposes herein set forth. p J osnPH W. SWAN.

